The Most Important Thing to the Arab World: Land 

US President Trump’s statement at Tuesday’s press conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu that he intends for the US to take over Gaza, move most of the two million residents to Jordan and Egypt and then rebuild Gaza into a Middle East riviera, demonstrates an amazing lack of understanding of Arab culture.

Without getting into a discussion as to whether the idea has merit or not, Egypt, Jordan and Saudia Arabia are not Canada, Mexico and Panama.  The bully pulpit that works in North and Central America generally does not work here.

In Arab culture there is a cardinal principle that one never gives up land.  That is the underlying reason prior attempts at working out a peace deal with the Palestinians could not come to fruition.  Every peace deal put on the table since 1948 involved recognizing Israel’s ownership of what the Arab perceive is their land.  And that concept has been in place historically since before the Ottoman period.

Who can forget the scene in Lawrence of Arabia when Peter O’Toole, who played Lawrence, is speaking to an Arab Sheikh.  The sheikh told Lawrence that “we want it all back” referring to all the Arab lands that were lost when an emerging Europe decimated Arab culture in southern Europe.   The sheikh then added, “and we have all the time in the world to accomplish that.”

That concept did not come into play in the discussions between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco during the discussion of the Abraham Accords because there was no land involved.  So it was easy for the leadership in those countries to successfully negotiate on an economic and diplomatic basis.

The only fly in the ointment here is the fact that the U.S. provides significant financial support to both Egypt and Jordan. In Egypt’s case it amounts to $1.45 billion in foreign aid each year.  For Jordan in 2022 the US and Jordan signed a $10.15b seven year MOU.  It is clear that President Trump has no concern about using financial leverage to get countries to bow to his whims but it is not clear that it would work as well here as in the west as here it is a matter of honor.

There is, of course, already significant pushback in this part of the world to the idea floated in the White House on Tuesday, sufficient perhaps to trigger World War III if the US tries to move this plan forward.

Of course, the one point that has been made is that it will be very difficult t rebuild Gaza while it is still populated by two million people.   But it is possible.  The West rebuilt Germany after World War II where there were 65 million people living in a country of rubble from allied bombings.

One would have to have an incredibly active imagination to think that the President’s plan can actually be implemented without causing worldwide chaos.